IEEE Copyright Form

The IEEE Copyright Form is the official legal instrument used by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to manage publication rights, intellectual property ownership, and distribution permissions for scholarly works. Administered by IEEE Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) staff through the online Electronic IEEE Copyright Form (eCF) system, completion of this agreement is a mandatory prerequisite for publishing any accepted article in IEEE journals, transactions, letters, magazines, or conference proceedings. In electrical engineering research, understanding copyright terms ensures that investigators remain compliant with publisher requirements while maximizing the visibility and academic dissemination of their findings.

Purpose of the Section

The primary purpose of the IEEE Copyright Form is to formalize the transfer of copyright ownership from the authors to IEEE for non-open-access publications, or to record author-retained licensing for open-access articles. By consolidating copyright ownership under IEEE, the publisher is legally empowered to protect the work against unauthorized commercial exploitation or plagiarism, administer worldwide indexing in IEEE Xplore, negotiate institutional library subscriptions, and grant standardized third-party reprint permissions via RightsLink. For authors, the form defines clear, legally binding retained rights—governing how preprints, accepted manuscripts, classroom materials, and dissertation chapters may be reused and shared without infringing publisher copyright.

Structure

The Electronic IEEE Copyright Form (eCF) is structured as a six-stage sequential workflow that dynamically adapts questions to the author’s institutional affiliation and publication model:

1. Article Identification and Metadata Verification: The wizard presents the article title, list of contributing authors, and IEEE publication name retrieved from the submission tracking system. The corresponding author must confirm that these details exactly match the final accepted manuscript.
2. Copyright Ownership Determination: The author completes a diagnostic questionnaire identifying who holds original title to the manuscript:
   • Individual Author or Employer: Standard copyright held by the authors or assigned to their employing university or corporation under work-for-hire provisions.
   • U.S. Government: Work authored exclusively by U.S. federal employees in an official capacity, classifying the text in the public domain.
   • Crown Copyright: Work authored by officers or employees of the British Crown, Australian Government, or Canadian Government.
   • European Union: Work authored by European Union institutional personnel.
3. Publishing Agreement Selection: The system determines whether the article is publishing under traditional subscription access (standard copyright transfer) or open access. If the journal is open access or hybrid and the author has elected to pay article processing charges (APCs), the author selects between a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) and a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND).
4. Retained Rights and Embargo Confirmation: The form displays the specific terms under which authors may post preprints and accepted author manuscripts to repositories, deliver lectures, and incorporate material into academic dissertations.
5. Digital Signature and Representation: One author signs on screen as the authorized representative of all co-authors, warranting that the work is original, has not been published elsewhere, and does not violate third-party rights.
6. Confirmation and Archive Delivery: The system generates a timestamped digital receipt and automated PDF copy of the executed agreement, transmits confirmation to the IEEE editorial production office, and unlocks the paper for typesetting and digital object identifier (DOI) registration.

A Short Annotated Example

Consider an accepted research paper submitted to IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices co-authored by university researchers and an industry partner. The corresponding author navigates the eCF portal as follows:

• Manuscript Details: “Sub-10nm Gate-All-Around Nanosheet Transistor Characterization.” The author confirms that co-authors match the approved author list established under IEEE authorship guidelines.
• Ownership Selection: Because the work was performed under university and corporate employment in the United States, the author selects “Standard IEEE Copyright Transfer” rather than government exemption.
• Execution: The author types their full name, job title (“Associate Professor”), and institutional affiliation, checking the box certifying legal authorization to execute the agreement on behalf of all co-authors.
• Post-Execution Retained Rights Notice: When uploading the accepted version to an institutional repository or personal website, the authors must display the mandatory IEEE copyright notice on the initial viewing screen:

“© 20XX IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.”

Common Mistakes

Authors completing the IEEE copyright process frequently encounter avoidable administrative and compliance setbacks:

• Selecting U.S. Government Exemption for Mixed Teams: If an article is co-authored by government personnel and non-government researchers (such as university faculty or contractors), the work is not wholly in the public domain. In mixed-authorship scenarios, IEEE policy requires a non-government co-author to sign the standard copyright form.
• Uploading the Version of Record (VOR) to Open Repositories: Authors often mistakenly upload the final IEEE-formatted, copy-edited PDF (Version of Record) to open platforms such as ResearchGate, personal web pages, or university repositories. Under standard copyright transfer, only the author-accepted manuscript (AAM) may be self-archived; posting the publisher’s VOR violates the publishing agreement unless the paper was published under an open access CC BY license.
• Omitting the Required Copyright Notice String: Uploading the accepted manuscript to personal websites or arXiv/TechRxiv without including the mandatory IEEE copyright notice and full publication DOI fails compliance requirements.
• Delaying Copyright Completion: IEEE production workflows halt typesetting and page layout until the eCF is finalized. Procrastinating on form completion directly delays final publication and online early access in IEEE Xplore.
• Confusing IEEE Copyright with Open Access Licensing: Believing that signing the standard IEEE Copyright Form provides open-access distribution. Traditional copyright transfer places the Version of Record behind a subscription paywall on IEEE Xplore; open access requires explicit selection of a Creative Commons license and payment of applicable APCs.

Checklist

Follow this checklist to complete the IEEE Copyright Form smoothly and maintain post-publication compliance:

• Prior to Accessing eCF:
  • Confirm that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final accepted text and author order.
  • Verify funder open-access mandates (such as Horizon Europe, UKRI, or NIH public access requirements) to determine whether a Creative Commons license is required.
  • Check employer IP policies regarding copyright assignment for scholarly publications.
• During eCF Completion:
  • Verify article title, journal/conference name, and author metadata against the final manuscript.
  • Select the accurate legal status (standard, U.S. government, Crown copyright, or EU).
  • If mixed authorship exists, ensure a non-government co-author executes the agreement.
  • Save and download a PDF copy of the executed copyright agreement for institutional grant records.
• Post-Publication Archiving:
  • Deposit only the author-accepted manuscript (post-peer review, unedited by IEEE production) following green open access self-archiving rules.
  • Embed the mandatory IEEE copyright statement and article DOI on the repository record or title page.
  • Format all formal references and citations to the final published work using standard IEEE reference format.
  • Respect the applicable repository embargo period (typically up to 24 months, unless funder policies mandate immediate deposit).

Discipline Differences

Copyright practices across electrical engineering, electronics, and semiconductor disciplines exhibit distinct operational characteristics:

• Conference-Centric Publishing: Unlike many life sciences where conferences do not publish archival proceedings, electrical engineering places immense prestige on peer-reviewed conference proceedings (such as IEEE IEDM, ISSCC, and ICCAD). Authors must complete the eCF before the final camera-ready paper deadline to ensure inclusion in IEEE Xplore and conference distribution.
• Preprint Integration via TechRxiv: Electrical engineering and semiconductor researchers frequently deposit early versions on IEEE’s subject-specific preprint server, TechRxiv, or arXiv. IEEE copyright policies formally permit preprint posting prior to and during submission, and IEEE does not treat prior preprint posting as prior publication.
• Semiconductor Industry Consortia: Semiconductor hardware manuscripts often involve researchers from corporate fabrication facilities, equipment suppliers, and foundries. These corporate co-authors frequently operate under corporate patent-clearance workflows, requiring internal legal approval before executing the eCF to ensure proprietary device processing steps are protected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I include my IEEE-published paper in my doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis?

Yes. IEEE policy permits authors to reuse all or portions of their IEEE-published articles in their own thesis or dissertation without requesting formal permission through RightsLink. The author must include a full citation to the original IEEE publication and its Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

What is the difference between the standard IEEE Copyright Form and an IEEE Open Access agreement?

The standard IEEE Copyright Form transfers copyright ownership of the manuscript to IEEE, and the resulting Version of Record is accessible via subscription or pay-per-view on IEEE Xplore. In contrast, an IEEE Open Access agreement (using CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND) allows authors to retain copyright ownership while granting IEEE a license to publish, making the article universally available online free of charge.

Who signs the IEEE Copyright Form when an article has multiple co-authors?

Under IEEE policy, one author (typically the corresponding author) signs the Electronic IEEE Copyright Form on behalf of all co-authors. The signing author must have obtained consensus and legal authorization from all co-authors prior to signing. In cases of mixed government and non-government authorship, a non-government author must execute the form.

How long is the IEEE repository embargo period for accepted author manuscripts?

IEEE maintains a standard 24-month embargo period for depositing accepted author manuscripts into institutional or subject repositories. However, IEEE policy explicitly permits authors to comply with specific grant funder public access mandates that require shorter embargo periods (such as 12-month or zero-month mandates).

Sources

• IEEE Author Center Journals. About the IEEE Copyright Form. URL: https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/choose-a-publishing-agreement/about-the-ieee-copyright-form/. Read November 8, 2026.
• IEEE Author Center Journals. Checklist for Choosing Your Publishing Agreement. URL: https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/choose-a-publishing-agreement/checklist-for-choosing-your-publishing-agreement/. Read November 8, 2026.
• IEEE Author Center Journals. Post-Publication Policies. URL: https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/become-an-ieee-journal-author/publishing-ethics/guidelines-and-policies/post-publication-policies/. Read November 8, 2026.
• IEEE Author Center Journals. Avoid Infringement upon IEEE Copyright. URL: https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/choose-a-publishing-agreement/avoid-infringement-upon-ieee-copyright/. Read November 8, 2026.